The Story of the Wuffa Warband......

The story of Bjorn Grim and Wuffa.

It is the spring of the year 865 AD, the three sons of the legendary Ragnar Lodbrok raised a coalition of Norse warriors and under their unified command, they set out on a military campaign to invade and conquer the four Anglo-Saxon kingdoms that made up England with the largest force of Vikings the world had yet seen.

The Anglo-Saxon's would come to call it 'The Great Heathen Army'. From all across the north lands, brave men and women like the young Bjorn Grim stood to answer this call to war. Their own stories... their legends, were about to begin...

The Vikings initially landed in the East Angles ( Norfolk and Suffolk today) where its king provided horses for their campaign in return for peace and so instead of an early battle, the Vikings spent the winter of 865-866 at Thetford. They then marched north the next year and captured York late in 866.

During 868 the army marched again, this time deep into the kingdom of Mercia and spent the winter in Nottingham besieged on two fronts by the kingdoms of Mercia and Wessex . However with no progress being made by either force, the Mercian king agreed to terms by the Viking army which moved back to York for the rest of the winter.

In 870 the Heathen army returned to the kingdom of the East Angles, killing its king and utterly conquering the entire area. The Viking forces go from strength to strength and also conquer Mercia as well in 874.

By this time only the kingdom of Wessex to the south stood in the way and it was late in the year 875 when the Vikings began their last attack to complete their campaign. However the army suffers many set backs and the king of Wessex, Alfred the Great, takes advantage and defeats them at the Battle of Edington, scattering The Great Heathen Army once and for all.Although the Vikings campaign had met its end, much of the country to the north and east still remained under their control, but with no clear leaders to unify them many rival warlords rose up, each with their own dreams of conquest and power.

Back in the East Angles, Bjorn Grim clawed his way to the top during this time of turmoil. Now a hardened warrior with over a decade of experience from the earlier campaign, he had fought all over England with the great army. Recruiting other veterans to his side and forms his own war-band which he names Wuffa, in honour of a past warrior king of legend that had once ruled the area hundreds of years before.

In 876 Bjorn seizes control of much of the strategically important coast and surrounding area with the help of fierce and loyal warriors such as the mighty Drangrulf and the famed Eadweard the Wanderer.

Secure in this power, Bjorn declares himself Jarl (Norse for Leader) and expands his army, seeking to unify the area under his rule and use the East Angles as a foothold to face of against the rest of England. Only then can Jarl Bjorn Grim begin to forge his legacy.......